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Who's Who - Denis Auguste Duchene

Denis Auguste Duchene (1862-1950) was
among the French commanders whose military careers came to an abrupt end
during the great German push of Spring 1918 for their failure to employ
Commander in Chief
Petain's edict requiring defence in depth.

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Duchene's war began with
his installation as a brigade commander; he thereafter achieved decent
progress (through divisional and corps command) before ending up as
commander of Sixth Army in December 1917.

Tasked with defence of the
Aisne front his forces held the high ground on the famed Chemin des Dames;
all well and good but for the fact that he was one of many commanders who
were openly contemptuous of Henri-Philippe Petain's notion of elastic
defence - that is, defence in depth. Rather, his idea of defence
required the traditional posting of large numbers of infantry in the front
line.

Three of the divisions
under Duchene's command were British, led by Heneker, Campbell and Jackson,
respectively. All three Major-Generals, they were alarmed at Duchene's
approach to infantry deployment - having experienced the pitfalls of such
defence against the Germans in Flanders - and personally protested their
concerns to Duchene. He remained adamant, aloofly dismissing the fears
of all three.

Calamity came to visit in
late May with the
Third Battle
of the Aisne. Ironically the three British divisions were among
the most badly hit by the German steamroller that punched across the Aisne
from 27 May onwards, three armies sent by
Ludendorff in
what was one of the great surprise attacks of the war.

The Germans advanced some
19 kilometres in the space of three days, again reaching the Marne and
seemingly within reach of Paris.